As increased requirements are imposed on shifting devices for automatic transmissions in motor vehicles especially in terms of the comfort of operation, a manual shifting function is also additionally provided to an increasing extent, besides the automatic shifting functions known for a long time, which usually comprise the selection of a reverse gear as well as a plurality of forward selection ranges, within which the different gears of the automatic transmission are independently selected. These manual shifting functions consist of upshifting or downshifting the individual gears of the automatic transmission by means of the selector lever belonging to the shifting device by tipping the selector lever forwards or backwards. A second, separate, so-called tipping gate is usually used for this. The tipping gate and the automatic shift gate are usually located in planes located in parallel next to each other, and the selector lever to be moved in the shift gates is movable about a so-called shift gate axis. In addition, the selector lever is pivotable about a selector lever axis both within the automatic shift gate and within the tipping gate and the shift gate axis and the selector lever axis being arranged at right angles to one another.
The motion of the selector lever is transmitted within the automatic shift gate corresponding to the shifting devices known from the state of the art by means of a connection member at the selector lever or at the selector lever housing, which is connected to a coupling element to the automatic transmission. This coupling element may be, for example, a Bowden cable. The motion of the selector lever in the tipping gate takes place, as a rule, on the basis of the tipping motions of the selector lever, which are necessary only here, by sensor elements electronically to the automatic transmission. During pivoting of the selector lever and of the selector lever housing connected thereto from the automatic shift gate into the tipping gate, which can be carried out usually in position D, i.e., in the forward gear range of the automatic transmission, the connection member is received with the connected coupling element in a corresponding recess of the shifting device housing and is fixed there. Such a design variant is known, for example, from the applicant's DE 196 00 526.
Even though the construction disclosed there has, in principle, proved successful, this leads to the drawback that there always must be some clearance in the area of the carrier between the selector lever and the connection member to the Bowden cable in order not to generate any interfering forces during the shifting into the tipping gate or out of the tipping gate. The clearance present is naturally perceptible at the selector lever and may assume a no longer tolerable extent over the service life of the shifting device.
In addition, design embodiments of shifting devices are known in which the uncoupling of the selector lever from the cable leading to the automatic transmission in the tipping gate is brought about by a pin of the selector lever moving out of the corresponding mounting lug of the cable, while the cable is at the same time fixed in the shifting device housing. The connection between the pivot of the selector lever and the lug of the cable must be provided with sufficient clearance in this case as well in order not to generate any interfering forces during the changeover between the automatic shift gate and the tipping gate and to guarantee, moreover, reliable hanging of the cable.
Moreover, the presence of a plurality of individual parts, which cause rather substantial costs during the manufacture and the mounting of such shifting devices, is disadvantageous in the existing state of the art in the constructions of this class due to the relative complexity of the entire shifting device.